FRISCO, Texas- The Pittsburgh Steelers have met with Charlotte EDGE Eyabi Okie-Anoma at the East-West Shrine Bowl, he told Steelers Depot.
Okie-Anoma, a former top-five recruit who also played at Alabama and Michigan in a college career that spanned five schools, had 5.5 sacks at Charlotte last season and registered 4.5 sacks at Michigan in 2022. He was one of the most impressive players at the first day of practice, winning two 1v1 reps handily against Illinois OT Julian Pearl and a bull rush against Oklahoma OT Walter Rouse. Okie-Anoma told Steelers Depot that they were told they were no longer allowed to bull rush in 1v1 reps after his win against Rouse.
It’s no surprise that the Steelers have interest in Okie-Anoma, despite being pretty set at EDGE with Alex Highsmith, also a Charlotte product, and T.J. Watt, as well as Nick Herbig. Markus Golden is a pending free agent though, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Steelers looked to address the position in the mid-to-late rounds of the draft, especially if they were able to land someone with the pedigree of Okie-Anoma, who began his career at Alabama. He checked in at 6037 and 253 pounds at Shrine Bowl weigh-ins.
He’s a player who overcame a lot of adversity throughout his college career in order to become a productive college player. He played for head coach Biff Poggi in high school at St. Frances Academy, and then played for him again at Michigan before following him after he got the head coaching job at Charlotte. Okie-Anoma had a lot of praise for Poggi, calling him an “old school” coach and what you see with him is what you get.
Okie-Anoma is a player to watch throughout the week, and if he is able to replicate his performance in practice today, he will be one of the biggest risers up draft boards to come out of the Shrine Bowl. He talked about how much it would mean to Charlotte to add another NFL player, with Pittsburgh already having two in Highsmith, also a Shrine Bowl product, and Larry Ogunjobi.
While EDGE isn’t a huge need for the Steelers, Okie-Anoma’s talent is tough to ignore. He would be an awesome fit in the Black and Gold.
